Wednesday, March 12, 2014

OMG! MAUI!

My husband has become a much better blogger than me. This is a good thing,
since he is making a move in his job that requires writing skills, so he’s
getting his practice in.

This afternoon I’m filling in at the Harvest Box pick-up location, which is the
perfect time to force myself to get some writing done. I am behind.
Waaaaaaaaaay behind.

So in January, J and I went to the island of Maui, Hawaii.
We had been to Hawaii 7 years ago with J’s family, staying on Oahu. This time
was just us. We stayed in the little town of Lahaina at a gorgeous little
B&B, the Garden GateBed & Breakfast. They served breakfasts of baked goods, fresh fruit,
yogurt with local granola, coffee and POG (pineapple, orange, guava) juice. We
knew it was time to go down to eat when IZ would play on the garden speakers.
Yes, we ate in the garden. It is the Garden Gate B&B, after all. The
resident pets greeted us most every time we came back to our room.

the view

We had a view of the ocean from our lanai, and drove along a
coastal highway to get anywhere.January
is prime whale watching season, but I remembered our “whale watching” cruise 7
years earlier, when all I saw was a glimpse of whale back. This was completely
different.

You could watch whales breaching while stuck in traffic. You
could see spouts while turning a corner. There’s a turn-off where you can talk
to a whale specialist and they chart the whale sightings. It was amazing. I
love whales. We saw whales EVERY DAY.

One of the first adventures was a trip to a local public
beach. The B&B owner recommended one to us, and we borrowed some snorkeling
gear from their storage room (that’s what it’s there for!).We snorkeled just off the beach where
everyone was playing in the water. There’s actually a reef right there. Fish,
sea urchins, even an eel.

snorkel-rific

But then… Oh, then…. Then we saw the sea turtle. Someone was
trying to point him out to us, but I couldn’t find him. J was the one who
spotted him, and tugged on my arm while pointing excitedly at the guy. Sea
turtle. He looked so cool, so calm, so relaxed. He barely seemed to move his
flippers to glide through the water. I followed him for quite a ways, even
after J had to take a break. He knew I was enthralled and just watched me from
above.

You guys. I swam with a wild sea turtle. Seriously. A. SEA.
TURTLE. I was just a little excited. I think that really was my favorite part
of the whole trip.

So, we also rented some road bikes. J had this crazy idea to
ride up to the peak of the volcano Haleakala. There’s paved road the whole way and a national park
at the top. This means he went from toes-in-the-ocean sea level up to the
10,000 foot peak. On a bike. I drove the car. I actually had my bike as well,
but didn’t find any stretch of that road I was confident enough to ride. J made
it, and made it back down as well. The down trip took only 15 minutes longer
than me in the car. Yeah.

view from the top

Then we road together along the coastal highway. The same
highway we would run on later. We road from Lahaina to Kihei, ate lunch, and
rode back. They have amazing bike lanes along both sides of the highway, and
the drivers were so nice compared to what we’re used to! We were confused when
a bunch of people started pulling over to the shoulder, blocking the bike lane,
but then realized why. Whales. More whales.

lunch!

We did some running, too, of course. A trail run up the
mountain behind the town gave us a great view of Lahaina and the ocean. You
could see some of the other Islands on a clear day. Hell, you could see them
from our lanai! We ate out, of course, but found some amazing food. Seafood,
burgers, pizza, beer. We did a luau that claimed to be the most traditional luau on
the island. It was pretty amazing. Open bar (small drinks), lots of dancing and
storytelling, and buffet. We sat at the traditional seating, on the ground at
low tables.

Now let’s get to the whole reason we were there in the first
place. The Maui OceanfrontMarathon, or MOM. J and I trained up for this and were eager to do it.
We got up super early on marathon day so we could take a school bus down the
start point, 26 miles away. It was still dark when we started the run.

We ran from Wailea, through the town of Kihei, past the
wharf in Maalaea, along the highway where I saw whales yet again, and into
Lahaina. The race finished downtown at an oceanfront park. Twenty-six point two
miles. That’s 26.2 for those who don’t like to read.

This was my first marathon. I did the 20 mile training run
(on a very windy day, no less) and felt well prepared. The MOM had regular
water stations with food, so we didn’t worry too much about carrying fuel or
water. I watched the moon setting over the ocean, and reflected on it. It was
too dark to get a clear picture, but I don’t know if I will ever forget that
view. My phone started going wacky with 15 miles to go. Siri kept coming on and
asking me what I wanted. I chewed her out and finally restarted my phone. While
running.

The water station at the halfway point had otter pops, and
it tasted amazing. With the sun up, I was getting pretty hot. It had been in
the 70s to 80s all week, and being on the ocean gave us humidity that my body
had been loving up to this point. There was a tunnel carved out of the mountain
that we ran through. We ran down back sea level and finally got some shade from
the monkey pod trees. There are small beach parks along the highway leading
into Lahaina, and they were full of people.

Tunnel!!

At mile 20, 6.2 miles left to go, I hit “the wall.” I
expected this since I had only trained to 20 miles. I was hot, sweaty, and
tired, but had to keep going. I hurried up a bit whenever I saw shade coming. I
made sure to stop at every water station and drink at least 1 cup of fluids,
and eat something at most of them. I told the people with watermelon chunks
that they were my heros. My running hat got put on backwards to cover my neck,
which was getting rather uncomfortably hot from the sun. I walked quite a bit.

Finally, I got a text from J. He was done and waiting on me.
He asked me to let him know when I hit the last mile, so I sent him a quick
picture of the 1 mile marker (the markers counted down) when I reached it. Just
1 more mile to survive. I tried to run a little more in this last mile, and
although it was hard, I managed to finish at a run. They were announcing
finishers as we approached and the announcer called me Charles. The lady next
to him corrected him at the same time as I was yelling my name at him. He
apologized.I didn’t care. I was done. I finished in 5 hours and 26 minutes.

such a welcome sight

J was waiting for me. He had gone to the car to fetch our
bags so I would have my post-race stuff. He handed me water and hugged me. He
took my pic at the finish line. He took me to get food (bananas, cookies) and
even let me prop my feet on his shoulders when I lay down to put my feet up. We
were both sore, and very tired, but hungry, so we walked/hobbled down the
street a few blocks to the burger joint. A big burger, good beer, and French
fries really hit the spot.

the finish area - note the exhaustion in my face

That evening, after a nice shower and nap, we took a sunset
dinner cruise with other marathoners and their families. The whales were happy
to see us, and got so close that you could hear them breathing. It was the
perfect finish to that day.

WHALE!!

The next day was recovery. We went to the beach. We lay in
the sun and the shade. We played in the ocean and looked at fish. It was
amazing, and we felt much better heading back to our room that night.

I am in love with Maui, although I have yet to see the other
islands (except Oahu). We would love to visit there regularly, drink the local
coffee, eat the local fruits and vegetables with our seafood, and play in the
ocean. We will definitely be back.

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About Me

I'm a 30 something Army wife that is obsessed with bras, running, and Dr. Who. Well, and my pets. I have a fondness for researching things online, which bleeds over into all I do. I worked for a while as a bra fitter and have been researching them for the past 7 or so years. Ask me a question about bras and you get a novel.